Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-1-2012
Department
History
School
Humanities
Abstract
Food is material and familiar, and because it is, we are often overconfident about our ability to understand the culinary past. It is easy to believe that if we can discover the recipe for some forgotten dish, the history of the dish becomes intelligible. When it does not, it tempts those who consume culinary history to impose modern sensibilities on our predecessors. The Nation before Taste" argues that historians and museum curators must be especially vigilant when presenting the history of food. Reviewing a series of historical challenges that stemmed from studying the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the author suggests three strategies for grounding food history in the past: recognizing that taste is constructed and temporal; engaging with material and social contexts, especially physiology, class, and gender; and admitting to our audiences that not all culinary mysteries have immediate or simple answers.
Publication Title
Public Historian
Volume
34
Issue
2
First Page
53
Last Page
78
Recommended Citation
Haley, A. P.
(2012). The Nation Before Taste: The Challenges of American Culinary History. Public Historian, 34(2), 53-78.
Available at: https://aquila.usm.edu/fac_pubs/210